Ramble On: 2008

Friday, November 21, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

Random since Bolivia

Louis, Steve, Louise (my roomie), and me at Juan's place on the Palm Frond.

Me geared up for a photo shoot for Toni in the mountains.

Toni, Em, and me after a delicious, spicy meal at Karachi Darbar

Joshua and me just before my inaugural run with the Arabian Gulf... Fateful night. Two minutes into the game against Hong Kong, my shoulder fell off, again... shit.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

more bolivia

Pachamama, or Mother Earth. In reality, it's a huge hill that is the Potosi mine, and where the colonial Spaniards got boatloads of silver.

Sofia and I on the top of an old, renovated cathedral, for a delicious lunch of spicy chicken.

Inside courtyard of the Potosi Mint.

Getting ready for the 6 hour, off road, bus ride to Uyuni, the gate to the world's largest salt flats.

Bolivia. continued

Johnny, our tour guide for the Potosi mines, with a handful of coca leaves, bitumen, and unfiltered cigarettes for the miners.

Helmet, explosives, and coca leaves.

"Lungs of Metal," the name of a local coop of miners.

Yes, that is a small, handmade grenade in my hand. Johnny made it for me!

Bolivia, summer 2008

The lone guitarist at Valle de la Luna.

Rodrigo and I getting the ATV out of a hole...

Dehydrated llama fetuses, and other indigenous religious artifacts.

Yes, those are ocelot skins hanging on the wall, and yes, the are on sale, for a gratuitously low $35 (and that's without even bargaining). Aren't they endangered???

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Via Ferrata

Mikey hanging out on the 'other' side... this gorge goes down at least another 150 meters, if not more!

Greg keeping an eye on the flash flood... was just a baby one, though it was a burly 30 minute storm, complete with hail in the Sultanate.

Greg getting himself up to the third traverse. Probably the dooziest one, you had to do a bit of a climb before you could get on a little perch (one person at a time) to set up your pulley for the cross. Once set though, it was smooth sailing straight across.

The descent down to the beginning of the VF.

Via Ferrata

More Oman this past weekend, with another visit to Snake Canyon. This time, in addition to the wadi walk through of Snake Canyon, we topped it off with a run through of the Via Ferrata there, basically a bolted section of steel cabling with several traverses across the wadi, all 300 meters from the canyon floor. Fun!